Valedictory Statements

Kei te mihi nui, ngā mihi o te rā ki a koutou, ngā rangatira, ngā kuia, ki te hunga ora. Kia ora tātou kua hui mai nei; tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

[A huge appreciation and the acknowledgments of the day to you collectively, the esteemed ones, the elderly womenfolk, and the healthy ones. Salutations to us gathered here; acknowledgments, accolades, and congratulations to you collectively, and to us all.]

It is my privilege to have been a member of the New Zealand Parliament over the last 9 years. I have appreciated the opportunity to be here, and wish first to thank all parliamentary staff for their unfailing courtesy and professionalism. I shall always remember the spontaneous hug I received last Friday.

Let me extend my love and thanks to the wonderful people up in the gallery—Green members and close friends who have come here to be with us today. Following the passage of time, Doug and Bruce and Angela, and Jenny and Diana and Claire, all from Christchurch; Sue and Denis, and Ann and Paul from Wellington; Bruce and Ingrid and Lynda from Waiheke; Felicity and Anna from the North Shore—I think you each have an inkling of just how much it means to me to have you here.

I am honoured to acknowledge the presence in the Chamber of Sir Geoffrey Palmer, one of New Zealand’s greats. And I am touched that Mike and Robin are here from Auckland—our memories together stretch back to childhood.

I gave my maiden speech from the seat immediately in front of me. The distance between there and here is 1.9 metres. You might not think that is a long distance for a 9-year stint. It is about half a centimetre per sitting week—in my case, backwards. The common snail proceeding leisurely but forwards at 2.4 millimetres per second can achieve more. Not only is the snail faster; it carries a shell on its back as it goes—another thing to note.

I have not carried a shell as I have gone through life. I have carried instead the belief that respect towards others will almost always be reciprocated, and that this is preferable to carrying a concealed dagger. I maintain that approach to this day, notwithstanding an election campaign and the recent political events in which I have been somewhat intimately involved.

I joined the Green Party of Aotearoa / New Zealand in January 2005, from the UN Secretariat Building in New York, moments after accepting a position at Canterbury University that enabled me to return home following 34 years overseas. I have been active in the party for the 12 years since, including those representing it here in Parliament.

Such a time in politics presents a challenge as to how to conduct oneself from day to day. In my time here I have learnt to admire most those colleagues who show courtesy and respect across the traditional lines of division. We all carry our own deeply held convictions, but it is important to remain open to the views of others.

At the global level, in our tumultuous age, this is arguably the most critical thing we each can display. I have worked and lived in nine countries beyond my own, in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Living in societies that are Buddhist or Islamic weaves a tapestry of what is common to us all and what is not. Each is as rich as the other; each is distinctive from the other.

The far-reaching disruption in our present age is due not only to the quickening pace of change; it is due to a lowered readiness to embrace each people’s values and customs as equally valid. Here in Aotearoa we have made some progress in reconciling our own value systems, albeit with some way still to go. But for the world as a whole, that is more challenging by an order of magnitude. With 200 nation States and 10,000 communities, how do we develop a coherent and legitimate system of global self-governance from this as we seek to solve our ecological crisis? This is the defining challenge of our century.

In my professional career I have focused primarily on the two existential threats facing humanity: climate change and the untamed use of force, especially with nuclear weapons. In that context, I treasure a few special experiences in my life.

The first was in the mid-1980s, serving on the New Zealand delegation when we negotiated the South Pacific nuclear-free zone. A second was in the late 1990s, conceiving and editing the book The Planetary Interest, which argued for global solutions to global problems and for each country’s legitimate national interest to derive from its share in the global solution, rather than pursuing an obsolete version in competitive style at the expense of the global commons.

More recently, in 2013, was setting up on Waiheke Island the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies, a thinktank that institutionalises the planetary interest. We had Sir Geoffrey give our third annual global affairs lecture last year, and we have Gareth Evans coming in a few months’ time from Australia to give the fourth. Jim Bolger has agreed to do it next year.

A fourth special experience, most recently of all, in 2015, was setting up GLOBE-NZ, our cross-party group of MPs working together on climate policy, with our Vivid Economics report on net zero domestic emissions, the unique parliamentary debate in April, and our recent common statement of collaborative purpose. I think, as an executive of six MPs from different parties, we are most proud of our statement of purpose, which we announced last month after a series of discussions following the April debate. It was the first time our cross-party group was speaking with one voice. We accepted the goals of the Paris Agreement and the long-term strategies to achieve them, including the 2050 Pathways Platform initiative agreed at the last UN conference in Marrakech; we welcomed the Vivid Economics report that would have New Zealand reach net zero domestic emissions on, or shortly after, 2050; we undertook to evaluate the merits of the Vivid Economics scenarios; and we plan now to develop an indicative, broad-banded pathway to that goal and to commence a dialogue on the policy measures to ensure its achievement.

I believe that this represents the best kind of politics that a democratic Parliament can display, and I look forward to seeing those goals realised over the next few years. I am certain that GLOBE-NZ has an effective future that will live beyond me and my immediate colleagues on the executive.

More generally on policy, if we can witness during the 52nd Parliament the following three achievements by New Zealand, I believe we shall all be able to take pride: a climate target for domestic emission reductions equivalent to an independently calculated share of the global carbon budget, ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and serious work in persuading the nuclear powers to join as part of the obligation under the treaty, and legislation that makes aggression in violation of the UN Charter a leadership crime, placing any Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister in prison if found guilty—no hard feelings, James. Those goals reflect deeply held principles cherished over the past century and more.

Principles are developed to guide us through life, without which we are alone in the dark. Life on Earth is naturally raw. Through our evolution we have developed technology to understand reality and even direct it, and principles to understand and direct ourselves. It is not perfect, because we are not. Each principle reflects a slice of that understanding, so it is inevitable that they compete and occasionally clash. After moments of crisis, we seek to reorder them and embrace a clearer set of principles for the future, and, in so doing, we evolve towards a higher level of insight and a wiser state of being, as individuals, as societies, and as the human group.

There are three central political principles of our age, and they are here in this Chamber today: freedom, equality, and sustainability. My experience in leading GLOBE-NZ for the past 2 years has brought home to me how each MP embraces a mix of all three, how we hoist one to the top of our own flagpole, and how we need to respect one another’s. There is no room for unbridled anger in New Zealand politics.

But principles are simply signposts to a common destination. In that, they differ from conscience. The reason I am leaving Parliament is the stance that I and my colleague Dave Clendon took on grounds of personal conscience. This is not the moment to explore the issues that arose, and both of us were prepared to accept whatever fate was in store when we made our decision. Once you make a decision on a matter of deeply held conviction, the rest is consequential, subject to a collective fate that the individual cannot orchestrate.

What I should say, however, is this. There are two dimensions to the task of political representation. The first is political judgment. That is empirical, relative, contestable, and open to negotiation. It is 99 percent of our daily job. The second is when an issue of personal conscience arises. That is ethical, absolute, non-contestable, and not open to negotiation. If politics transgresses conscience, politics must cede. This is the decision we took—simple as that. Yet decisions taken on conscience can, of course, have political consequences.

The fate of any political party will wax and wane—that is the nature of politics—but a party is simply an institution. An institution is a vehicle for the pursuit of ideals and principles. Like any vehicle, it requires ongoing maintenance. Sometimes the way ahead is difficult to discern. Parties can lose their way, but they can also recover. I believe the Green Party will do so, on behalf of the Green movement around the world. Individuals come and go, but the institutions remain to serve the ideals they cherish.

A consultant colleague was in touch a few days ago. “I have been deeply distressed all week,” she wrote, “given the political turmoil. I’ve assumed it was best not to disturb you, but you have been in my thoughts and I hope you are keeping your spirit resilient through all of this. I practise faith that says things will evolve, for the highest good, over time.”

When I entered Parliament in 2008, I had two granddaughters. Mia was 4 and Kahli was 2. Now I have six. Grandchildren have a way of lighting up our lives; pushing us to be more aspirational, more resolute, in forging a better future. I have done my best here for them, as I know we all aspire to do for future generations.

And now, I look up to Marilyn, with whom I celebrate 25 years of marriage next Tuesday. I did not know it was possible to be so close to another human being. Your beauty and grace, your forbearance and your love—they overwhelm me.

My great-grandfather was present in this Parliament from 1855 to 1868. He has come and gone, but I feel his spirit. My brother came, made his contribution, and left.

Now it is my turn. Farewell, my colleagues; it has been such a privilege.

[Applause]

Sitting suspended from 5.58 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.